Stay with Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte 4) - Page 103

Billy pulled his wallet out. “You see this?” He showed Jace a photo of Willow. “My life wasn’t worth shit until this little girl came into it.” He showed Jace a second photo, of Renie holding Willow on her lap. “And this? This here’s my dream come true. This is what life’s about. It ain’t about stayin’ on a bull or bronc for eight seconds. It ain’t about winnin’ a gold buckle, or havin’ a big bank balance. It’s this, right here.” He pointed at the photo again, and then handed it to Jace.

“If there’s a chance you can have this in your life, you gotta take it. You’ll regret it every day, for the rest of your life, if you don’t.”

“Bree isn’t interested.”

“Bullshit,” Billy shook his head. “If you don’t take another single bit of advice from me ever again, take this one. It ain’t time to give up yet.”

Jace threw back another shot.

“Where’s she at?”

“Idaho.”

“Why?”

“No idea.”

“Why’d she go there before?”

Jace told Billy the short version of why Bree went to Idaho last summer.

“When we were together at Thanksgiving, I thought she was ready to move forward.” He never would’ve made love to her if he thought she wasn’t ready.

“Somethin’ happened.”

“What?”

“Don’t know, but it’s gotta be somethin’ big for her to stay away from home for Christmas. Bree lives and breathes for baby Cochran.”

December 20

Our first Christmas as husband and wife, and Bree and I aren’t together. She’s angry with me about it, but she knew this was how it would be when she married me.

She did? Bree remembered the conversation she and Zack had had when he told her he couldn’t be home for Christmas. He couldn’t take leave while at pilot training. She didn’t understand. He was in Texas, not overseas. She’d offered to come to him, but he told her not to.

She remembered that week, and how much they’d argued. There were several entries written between December 20 and Christmas Day.

December 25 - Christmas Day

Only someone with no sense of their own purpose could be so closed off to the needs and beliefs of others. How could I have been so wrong?

Bree slammed the cover of the journal closed and threw it across the room. The door to the bedroom was open just enough that Red, walking by, witnessed her display of anger. She heard the door creak and saw he had opened it enough to stick his head in.

“Everything okay?”

Bree crossed her arms in front of her. “No, it isn’t. He thought he was the only one with doubts. He wasn’t. I had doubts, too.”

“Came up to tell you I was headed into town. Good time to take a break?”

When Bree stood, she knocked the pile of envelopes to the floor, from where they sat on a foot stool. She bent down to pick them, and when she stood, her eyes were fille

d with tears.

Red took the envelopes out of her hand, set them on the bed, and put his arm around her shoulders.

“Let’s get you away from this for a couple hours. Change of scenery will do you good.”

They drove south from the ranch, rather than north. Red almost always went north. The only time she’d traveled south was with Jace, when they went to Sun Valley.

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